Scottish Vote Points Up Support For Autonomy Nationalists’ Win Setback For Conservative Government

The Scottish Nationalists’ candidate won a special parliamentary election in a longtime Conservative stronghold Thursday, eroding the Tories’ slim majority and underlining growing support for Scottish autonomy.

The defeat in the Perth and Kinross district was a setback for the unpopular Conservative government’s struggle to preserve the near 300-year-old union of Scotland and England under a single Parliament in London.

It came a month after the Conservatives were wiped out in local elections across Scotland.

The Scottish National Party’s Roseanna Cunningham scooped up 16,931 votes in the Perth and Kinross election. Britain’s main opposition Labor Party ran second with 9,620 votes, ahead of the 8,990 votes for the Conservatives, popularly known as Tories. The centrist Liberal Democrats ran fourth with 4,952 votes.

The result cuts the Conservatives’ majority in the 651-member House of Commons to nine. Labor has 272 seats, the Liberal Democrats 23 and the Scottish nationalists now have four. The remainder are held by regional parties.

Many nationalists do not seek independence from England but want a regional parliament, a position also supported by Labor.

Despite increased prosperity in Scotland, complaints against the government include higher taxes, plans to sell off the railways and merging ancient Scottish regiments as part of defense cutbacks.